"I have recently received a crushed toy box simply because HLJ didn't put enough protection around the item. This is the third time I received a poor condition of toy box from them. Unlike other toy collectors, I am not extremely picky in terms of the condition of the toy box. Yet, I have a standard too. If the damage is too much, being a consumer myself, I believe I have the right to ask for compensation or replacement. Once again, HLJ has failed to impress me. They kept using the same lame excuse that the toy box is only for advertising or protection for the toy, any damage to toy box will not affect your enjoyment on the toy. In fact, this was stated in their FAQ section of their web site. Having a quick glance, from what I understand, basically this is what they are trying to say:"........ If you happen to receive a damaged toy box, tough luck, live with it as we are not responsible for any damage nor do we care, it just a pure mishap. If you want a perfect box, shop somewhere else..........". What kind of attitude is this? Their response has indicated that they are lack of professionalism and responsibility with poor customer service. Earlier this year (2006) , I have also received a damaged toy box , it was crushed with a deep tear around the top of the toybox. The strange thing is that the packaging box was fine with no damage and it didn't seem to be opened for inspection by the customs. This makes me wonder if HLJ has the intention to get rid of all these poor condition items to those buyers from overseas cause this has not only happened to me but to my friend too. I have bought toys from HLJ in the last 5 years, yet, it appears that they show no improvement at all. I doubt that I will shop there again. They should learn from those Yahoo Japan auction sellers. If HLJ is selling toys on eBay or other on-line auction site, I am not surprised to see them with numerous negative feedbacks. In conclusion, HLJ is your last resort to buy toys on-line, stay away if possible. There are still some on-line toy stores with reasonable pricing and offer much better customer service and packaging.
PS: Beware, HLJ would not allow you to cancel your order when they are preparing it for shipment. So think thrice before you order or cancel your order before they are in stock."
"I've purchased from HLJ about 5 times now, and I've already had three problems.
One order, they took my preorder, yet when the product arrived, I got nothing. First time they said that the item was being prepared, and then later after I email them again, they said they didn't get enough of the product. So I'm screwed. Note they never emailed me proactively to let me know I won't be getting the item, I had to pester them about it because I saw the item in "discontinued" status and my order wasn't fulfilled.
Second time, order was shipped, a part was broken. Passed from one Customer representative to another via email, and then passed to the retail team, that's been two weeks and still nothing back from the "retail team" about resolution.
Most recent problem, items were paid for, supposedly in stock (or else they shouldn't be charging me), yet products still aren't shipped after a week. In the past, it would ship next day, or at worse, 2 days later. No email from them as to why this is happening."
"HLJ is one of the places to get rare and otherwise unavailable figures outside of Japan. I've ordered many times over the past year and everything always arrives as advertised.
The prices could be better, but there aren't very many other options for this type of merchandise outside of Japan. Shipping costs are reasonable considering the delivery time of Global EMS and being separated by the Pacific Ocean."
"If you're into anime figures and stuff, you probably don't need me to tell you about HLJ. But anyways, very reliable, excellent customer service, all authentic products.
However, note that it's a *mail order* service and it can be really slow (relatively) without the more streamlined checkout system of everyday online stores. One word of caution I would give is: if you plan on paying via PayPal, make sure the email you give for your account is the *same* email as the one you used for PayPal. I found this out after I already created my account with a different email. I switched to cc payment but that did delay the order by a couple days.
Their prices are not that great. They sell by MSRP and it's often pretty steep. Domestic(US) releases of anime figures are usually 1/2 to 2/3 the price of those on HLJ. Of course, very few quality figures see domestic release.
HLJ has all their shipping info on the site, and it's pretty accurate.
I emailed a question on noon Saturday (jp time) and got a response from Scott in 1.5 hrs. That's pretty damn good."